this article first appeared July 23,2024 in The Boston Globe
St. Anne’s Hospital is among Steward’s Massachusetts facilities.© John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
A court-appointed patient care advocate found staffing challenges and broken equipment at Steward Health Care’s hospitals in Massachusetts and three other states, according to a court filing Tuesday.
Despite those problems, the advocate, called an “ombudsman,” said Steward patients are safe and found no issues requiring immediate attention by the US Bankruptcy Court in Houston. Staffs at the hospitals are “committed to providing excellent care,” the filing said.
Steward filed for bankruptcy in the Houston court on May 6, and is working to sell about 30 hospitals, including eight in Massachusetts, to pay creditors. The report by the ombudsman, Suzanne Koenig, who was appointed by federal bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to safeguard patient care as the bankruptcy played out, examined 15 hospitals in Massachusetts, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
A representative from Steward didn’t respond to a request to comment on the ombudsman’s report on patient care. The report covered the period between May 20, when Koenig was appointed, and July 22.
The deadline for bids on the Steward hospitals in Massachusetts, which include St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center and Carney Hospital in Boston, passed on July 15. But the company has yet to identify the bidders or say whether it received bids for all eight of its hospitals in the state.
In her court filing, Koenig, who’s shared findings with Massachusetts health monitors, wrote that hiring employees “has proved challenging” at some Steward hospitals — though “patients were in no immediate danger or otherwise receiving unsafe care.” While the hospital leaders are engaged, she wrote, “the leadership team is spread thin with certain individuals providing oversight across multiple hospitals.”
The hospitals have been “actively recruiting and filling vacant shifts” by paying overtime, offering bonuses, and hiring workers known as “travelers” from outside agencies, Koenig wrote in her filing.
Hospitals have been sharing food and medical supplies to prevent shortages, Koenig wrote, while repairs or new equipment is needed in each of the Steward hospital. Among the “non-functioning” inventory were “kitchen equipment, elevators, endoscopy scopes, and hospital chillers,” she reported. She also observed worn furniture, chipping paint, and “chaotic work processes occurring across certain kitchens,” but said the hospitals have been working to correct the problems.
Koenig said Steward’s financial straits make it difficult to fix these problems. “Staff must wait on the provision of funds to fix or replace the broken equipment,” she wrote, “as many vendors are demanding prepayment, cash on delivery, or are unwilling to provide the services.”
In addition to St. Elizabeth’s and Carney, the Massachusetts hospitals Steward operates are Holy Family in Methuen and Haverhill, Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, Morton Hospital in Taunton, and St. Anne’s in Fall River.